Blog Archives

This week on the show, we talk about the man who makes teenagers cry and experience the “feels”, John Green!

Also, I hate ” the feels” as a phrase. If I was being harsh, and I am, it’s a lazy way to ignore real emotions that can make experiences deeper. Where the Wild Things Are didn’t give me “the feels”. It made me sad and melancholy and reminded me of making mistakes as a kid and thinking they’re the end of the world.

None of that ranting is about John Green, though! We talk all of his books, Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Help! I Have Too Many Katherine’s and I Don’t Know What to Do With Them All!, and the rest. We have our own music master, Ben, on the show to help us through the books Nic and I haven’t read. It’s a good episode. And not just because it’s my birthday episode.

We also talk about how Ruth Ware’s new book can’t be as successful as the terrible Woman in Cabin 10. People had to get wise, right? Nic and Ben also review The Dark Tower, which I haven’t seen, but from all accounts sounds pretty embarrassing. And the trailers made it look like a bad 90s action flick, like The Last Action Hero. It should be easy, a dark western with some magic and maybe some horror. But the first book, The Gunslinger was underwhelming and I couldn’t finish the second one. I guess some ideas are too good for the world.

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When the show first started, we talked so much about Joyce Carol Oates that I worried people would think she was the real focus of the podcast. But, as we’ve gone on, I’ve grown to realize a new fear, an all too real one, and that’s James Patterson.

He’s in our book news segment, he’s in our spotlight, we do bits on him, sometimes he’s in our bookmarks or a book club! The guy is impossible to not talk about when doing a book podcast. We’d have to be genre specific to avoid him, but he’s even got science fiction books and his name is all over young adult and children’s books. And bookshots, right?

I don’t know what his goals are as a writer, other than making millions of dollars and never wanting for anything. When I see authors with co-authors, who barely write their own books anymore, or who have been writing the same series exclusively for years, I wonder how they feel about it. Is it the same as doing your fifty year tour as The Who or playing Wolverine for seventeen years? As a writer, do you feel fulfilled or satisfied? It’s interesting, because I doubt Patterson is bummed he’s not writing all his own books. He probably spends more time writing checks for new couches! I can’t even begin to imagine the couch a million dollars could get you. The fabric alone makes my mind boggle.

Also, so sorry for the audio problems. My laptop shut off during the first twenty minutes and than I forgot to turn the external mics back on for the middle section. But that last twenty minutes, man, are they good.

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In which we actually discuss the early aughts. Not too much to add to this episode. We’ve reached the point where we won’t be looking at past decades anymore.

2000-2010 is where I stopped reading for a long time and then got back into it as an older teen. It’s when I got into the X-Men, Marvel and comic books. It’s when I bought my PS2, one of my favorite video game consoles ever. It’s when I dropped out of high school and enrolled in college. It’s when I started listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and got into classic rock. It’s when the family photo albums stops having pictures of me.

Important years, but we probably don’t won’t to dwell of go back there.

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That seems a bit crazy. A hundred is a lot, right? I listen to podcasts that haven’t reached that number. We must be doing something right.

We talk about a few different things this episode. James Patterson, for one. The amount of free press we’ve given that guy is silly. Not that he needs it. I guess I’m going to have to read his stuff soon. I don’t want to, though. And, surprising myself, I’m not loving Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. Also, we learn Nic has an issue with Megs. No idea where that came from.

I wish I had more to say about us turning one hundred weeks old but I got to prepare for our two year anniversary next month. That’s a lot of book-related content. If you have thoughts about that, let me know. If you don’t, let me know too. Because I’d love to know why you hate our show. It’s Nic, right? I’ve known for at least forty of these shows.

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